After the Recruiter Says No

You had high hopes for this job: The job requirements matched your skill set perfectly. You aced your interviews. And you imagined hearing those sweet words so many of us long to hear:

"You're hired."

Instead, you got another rejection letter. According to recent U.S. Labor Department data, 5.5 unemployed Americans, on average, are vying for each job opening--so most interviews will end in rejection.

And that can be a crushing blow--but it can also be a career-making moment. When you don't get the job, what should your next steps be?

Don't beat yourself up about it.

The Job Market's Temp Recovery

Americans' expectations about employment may be shifting away from traditional notions of what a job looks like: a recent Yahoo! HotJobs poll asked respondents whether they were likelier to accept temporary work this year than last--and 75 percent said yes.

And well they might. The U.S. Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent in February, as employers eliminated 36,000 full-time jobs. But it also reported 48,000 new temporary jobs--and since September 2009, 284,000 new temporary jobs have been created.

Traditionally, economists have viewed rises in temp-worker hiring as an early indicator of job-market growth--companies often hire temp workers as a way of starting new projects or increasing production without making a long-term financial commitment to new hires. However, some experts feel that the slow rate of recovery from the current recession means companies will be more cautious than usual about moving from